The “Clean” Tomato Sauce You’ll Make Again and Again

Ready to ditch your canned tomato sauce? Homemade marinara is one of the easiest recipes to make, so it’s perfect if you’re looking ways to switch to a “cleaner,” less processed diet.

Once you start making your own tomato sauce, you’ll have a hard time going back to storebought jars. This pasta sauce will spoil you with fresh tomato flavor and bold, zesty herbs. Preparing it yourself will also give you total control over the salt content, and sneaky sodium levels are a primary offender in processed foods. And cutting out processed foods to lower the sodium content of your diet can help reduce your risk of high blood pressure and kidney disease.

To make this healthy marinara the best pasta sauce, cardiologist and chef Mike Fenster, MD adds a few special ingredients, including the careful choice of tomatoes. Heirloom tomatoes are grown with the focus on quality over quantity. In particular, San Marzano tomatoes come from the Naples region and provide an Italian flavor that is difficult to replicate.

Tomatoes can be quite acidic, so most canned tomato sauces use salt and sugar to tame that flavor. Instead, Dr. Mike adds a little red wine to this sauce. This one ingredient tames the acidity of the tomatoes, adds an interesting depth of flavor, and reduces the salt content. (Check out this video for more tips for cutting salt from your diet.)

This homemade tomato sauce is mega versatile, so feel free to whip up this recipe anytime you have a craving for lasagna, baked ziti, spaghetti, or even DIY pizza.

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

1 cup onions

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 dash of salt (1/16th teaspoon)

1 cup diced Heirloom tomatoes

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon oregano

2 ounces red wine

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 cup low-sodium chicken broth

1 (14.5 oz) can low-sodium San Marzano tomatoes

1/2 tablespoon parsley

1 bay leaf

Instructions

1. In a large pot, add the roughly chopped onions, chopped garlic, olive oil and red wine. Then allow the red wine to cook until it has almost completely evaporated. And seasoning.
2. Add the chicken broth. Then add the diced Heirloom tomatoes and the San Marzano tomatoes, and bring to a boil.
3. Once the pot has begun to boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and let cook. Add the tied bundle of herbs to the simmering pot.
4. Let simmer until just 1/3 of the liquid remains, and remove the bundle of herbs. Using an immersion blender, puree the remaining ingredients until it is consistently smooth throughout.